PhD. in Bioengineering after Medical School

[fozzy]

Hi,

I am a foreign medical student (M.B.B.S) about to graduate in two years. After giving my STEPS and completing med school, I plan on pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering. I have a strong interest in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and artificial organs and prostheses.

Given my medical background, I believe I am quite adept in Biology. However, grad programs obviously require strong math and physics backgrounds as well - which I only have till GCE A'Levels. I believe I will have to make up for these in Junior/Community colleges in the states.

Is there anyone else who has taken this path after Medical School and might have some advice?

Thank you!

[crewgal]

Hi,

I'm a veterinary medicine student and am also interested in regenerative medicine. I worked on a project last summer with an engineering lab. In my experience bioengineering dealt with things such as materials science, designing machines to make a 3-D environment for cell culture, and force analysis. They had very little medicine/life science background (as in one class that lasted a couple weeks), and had trouble with concepts such as maintaining sterility. They just looked at how their structure influenced cells in a basic manner (just microscopy, not even RNA analysis).

Basically, you might want to look into regenerative medicine programs too.

[Soheila]

I also agree with crewgal. I am graduate from MSc biotechnology (medical background) and as I also wanted to apply for bioengineering I understood that most of their cources are basically material sciences and they consider engineering characteristics of a platform rather than biomedical ones.I recommend you to apply for BBS or PIBS programs with the scope of regenerative medicine.